ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The Bishop of Cork and Ross has distanced himself from comments made by a priest who asked mourners at a funeral to pray that former lord mayor of Cork, John Murray, would be found not guilty of sex assault charges.

By Eoin English
Irish Examiner Reporter

Dr John Buckley described the comments as “offensive and entirely inappropriate”.

“The diocese fully respects the independence of the DPP and the Courts Service and regards it as entirely inappropriate that a funeral Mass should be used in such a manner,” he said.

Murray, 83, of Gregg Rd, Cork, was found guilty by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court last Friday of sexually assaulting a teenager in 1996. The former Labour city councillor is due to be sentenced by Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin next Monday.

However, it has emerged a visiting Augustinian priest who was celebrating a funeral Mass in a church on the southside of Cork City last Thursday asked mourners during the prayers of intercession to pray that Murray would be found not guilty. The priest knew the deceased and it is also understood he is a friend of the Murray family.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Milwaukee Survivors and Clergy Alliance reach out to Vatican for help

WHAT
Officers of the Milwaukee based SCLA, (“The Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance”), a newly formalized organization of priests and survivors of clergy sexual abuse, will:

–Release a letter of appeal sent to the Vatican late last week by the group requesting that the Congregation for the Clergy formally and legally rescind a 2007 approval (or “nihil obstat”) to Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s request to move $57 million dollars of archdiocesan money into a newly created “Cemetery Trust.” The SCLA is requesting that money be returned to the archdiocese as an asset based upon the tenants of canon law and justice for survivors.

–Discuss the upcoming settlement offer by the Milwaukee Archdiocese and their major insurance carrier to the 570 victims of clergy sexual abuse who filed cases in Milwaukee Federal court.

WHEN
Tuesday, November 26, 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
The Healing Center, 130 W. Bruce Street, Fourth Floor, Milwaukee

WHO
Officers of SCLA, “The Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance” a newly formalized Milwaukee based organization. The only initiative of its kind, SCLA members began meeting privately nearly three years ago to promote dialogue and change in the church and society through a unique and supportive coalition of survivors and priests.

WHY
A unique collaboration of survivors and clergy based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (The Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance or SCLA) has sent a formal appeal to the Vatican asking to reverse a 2007 decision by the Congregation of the Clergy and return $57 million dollars to the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

The money was transferred in 2007 by then Archbishop Timothy Dolan into a so-called “Cemetery Trust” but was actually designed, according to documents that surfaced in Milwaukee Federal Court this summer, to prevent compensating childhood victims of rape, sexual assault and abuse by priests.

To create the Trust, under Catholic Canon Law, Dolan required formal approval (or “nihil obstat”) by the Congregation for the Clergy, headed at the time by Cardinal Claudio Hummes. Hummes was appointed to the post by former Pope Benedict XVI.

After filing for bankruptcy in 2010, the Archdiocese claimed that the funds were not part of their assets but were part of a protected cemetery trust.

It wasn’t disclosed until a few months ago that the $57 million cemetery trust was for the maintenance of only eight catholic cemeteries within the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

The SCLA letter was sent Friday to Archbishop Beniamino Stella, who has replaced Cardinal Claudio Hummes at the direction of Pope Francis, asking him to rescind the prior decision allowing the transfer of the nearly $57 million into the cemetery trust. The letter cites reasoning based in both canon law and justice.

It is anticipated that very soon the Archdiocese will file its reorganization plan, which will include proposed “settlements” for survivors. Those “settlements” will be based upon an agreement the Archdiocese made with its major insurance carrier. Victims were not allowed to participate in the agreement negotiations.

In anticipation of the settlement figure, SCLA will also discuss and compare a likely archdiocesan settlement figure per victim to other bankruptcy settlements around the United States, as well as projected priest offender costs.

CONTACT
Monica Barrett, 414.704.6074
Michael Sneesby, 414.915.4374
Peter Isely, 414.429.7259
Fr. James Connell, 414.940.8054

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, November 26, 2013 – As has already taken place in the United States, the episcopates of Italy and Spain also have significant changes in their leadership under way.

And the observers of ecclesiastical questions, but not only they, have gone to work to interpret these changes in the context of the new pontificate.

They want to understand the impact of the “Bergoglio effect” on the corps of Catholic hierarchies profoundly shaped by his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

IN SPAIN

In Madrid, after two five-year mandates and with the statutory impossibility of being reelected, Bishop Antonio Martínez Camino was on his way out as secretary and spokesman of the episcopal conference.

An anomalous Jesuit – hardly Bergoglian in style – and an ironclad conservative, Martinez was a staunch ally of cardinal of Madrid Antonio María Rouco Varela, no Bergoglian himself, “dominus” of the Iberian episcopate over the past two decades with an iron fist in opposing internal ecclesial dissent, the political separatist impulses present also in sectors of the Church, and the secularist tendency personified by socialist leader José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero.

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AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

Former Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton admits he had “fallen very short” in his oversight

MATTHEW BENNS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NOVEMBER 26, 2013

SMILING Bishop Keith Slater smiles so much he apologised for doing it before giving evidence at the harrowing royal commission into child sex abuse today.

“I apologise in advance if I may seem to smile at time which is not appropriate,” he explained. It was just his “personality”.

But there was nothing to smile about as the commission heard a litany of Bishop Slater’s failures to help more than 40 victims of physical and sexual child abuse at the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore, adequately compensate them or report their church abusers to authorities.

“On reflection,” Bishop Slater agreed in the witness box, that withdrawing the church’s compensation offer to victims at one stage to help broker a better settlement was at odds with any kind of moral approach.

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AUSTRALIA
CQ News

THE Grafton Anglican Diocese had access to more than $200 million in assets when it refused to pay out less than $4 million to victims of child sex abuse, the royal commission has heard.

The revelation came just moments before former registrar Pat Comben surprisingly announced he had voluntarily relinquished holy orders and was no longer a reverend of the Anglican Church.

During yesterday’s cross-examination, Mr Comben, who last week told the commission the diocese had felt threatened by the “scary” group claim being brought by former residents of Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home, was quizzed about a significant jump in the diocese’s recorded equity between 2005 and 2007.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

München – Familienpolitiker der Union wollen offenbar die unabhängige Stelle gegen Kindesmissbrauch abschaffen. Wie der Spiegel berichtet, überraschten CDU-Unterhändler die SPD mit dem Vorschlag, nur noch einen ‘Kinderrechtebeauftragten’ einzusetzen, der unter anderem für das Thema Missbrauch zuständig wäre. Die SPD lehne das ab. Nach den Missbrauchsskandalen in der katholischen Kirche und der Odenwaldschule war die Stelle des Missbrauchsbeauftragten 2010 von Union und FDP gegründet worden. Er entwickelte sich zum Bündnispartner für Betroffenen-Initiativen und kritisierte mehrmals die Regierung. Der unabhängige Beauftragte Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig spricht laut dem Bericht von einem ‘unverantwortlichen Signal’. SZ

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Familienpolitiker der Union wollen die erst 2010 geschaffene unabhängige Stelle gegen Kindesmissbrauch in dieser Form offenbar nicht erhalten. In den Verhandlungen über eine Große Koalition überraschten CDU-Unterhändler die SPD mit dem Vorschlag, nur noch einen “Kinderrechtebeauftragten” einzusetzen, der unter anderem für das Thema Missbrauch zuständig wäre. Die SPD lehnt das ab. Am vorigen Donnerstag konnten sich die Parteien in der Arbeitsgruppe Familie nicht einigen. Intern heißt es, womöglich müsse Kanzlerin Angela Merkel am Ende den Streit entscheiden, wenn es zu einer Koalition kommt. Nach den Missbrauchsskandalen in der katholischen Kirche und der Odenwaldschule war die Stelle des Missbrauchsbeauftragten 2010 von Union und FDP gegründet worden. Er entwickelte sich zum Bündnispartner für Betroffeneninitiativen und warf der Bundesregierung wiederholt Untätigkeit vor.

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NEW YORK
YNN

A federal court judge today sentenced a Schuyler County man to multiple life sentences in state prison.

Daryl Vonneida was previously convicted of 14 counts of sexual abuse. Two teenage brothers and a 21-year-old testified that they were sexually abused and photographed by Vonneida.

Prosecutors say Vonneida met the kids through a church in Schuyler County and sexually abused them after having them pretend to kill each other and then play dead. Prosecutors said the acts took place in hotel rooms, the defendant’s home and in his car.

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NEW YORK
YNN

SCHUYLER COUNTY, N.Y. — A Schuyler County man convicted of child sex abuse will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Daryl Vonneida, 63, of Dix, was found guilty of 14 counts, including producing and possessing child porn and transporting minors over state lines for illegal sexual activity. The investigation began after two children came forward saying Vonneida sexually abused them.

Vonneida was a volunteer photographer at a church in Horseheads at the time. He was sentenced to life in prison on each count of producing child porn and transportation and another 20 years for possessing child porn.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Comcast Sportsnet

A suburban mom has filed a lawsuit against a female teacher who worked at a Chicago church and religious camp in Wisconsin. The woman says she was sexually abused when she was a teenager and the woman she’s accusing has worked with children for decades.

“I am very passionate about Jesus,” says this Cherie Carlson in an online video.

The YouTube video shows Carlson conducting a religious seminar.

Carlson is now a middle school teacher in Buffalo Grove but she used to work at the North Side Gospel Center in Chicago in the ’90s, and Camp Awana in Fredonia, Wisc.

This woman, whose identity we agreed to conceal, says Carlson was her spiritual mentor back then but began to sexually abuse her when she was 16-years-old.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The former head of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton has apologised for smiling while giving evidence at a royal commission into the church’s response to child sex abuse claims.

The commission is examining the response of the NSW north coast diocese to claims of child abuse involving clergy and staff at the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the former bishop Keith Slater apologised for smiling during his testimony on Monday.

‘I was aware, after the session yesterday, that I had been smiling at various points,’ he said.

‘I recognise the gravity and the seriousness of the matters that are before us … But smiling is very much a part of the interaction with the person with whom I’m speaking.’

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From: The Australian
November 26, 2013

THE head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, spent years privately trying to convince one of his bishops to change the way he dealt with victims of child sex abuse, before finally suggesting he resign earlier this year.

Under Bishop Keith Slater, the Diocese of Grafton in northern NSW spent years denying it was liable for child abuse allegedly committed over several decades at a local children’s home, the Royal Commission has heard.

One of about 40 such victims, who ultimately received settlements of up to $10,000 after legal costs, has told the commission the experience of dealing with the church “was like being raped all over again.”

Giving evidence this morning, Bishop Slater said he was now “personally totally humiliated in myself” over how he handled the matter.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

SCOTLAND’s Catholic Church is dealing with an average of six allegations of abuse a year, half of them historic.

For the first time, the country’s eight dioceses yesterday published full figures for complaints received against its clergy, volunteers and parishioners.

The Church, in an audit of abuse allegations involving children or vulnerable adults, said fully 27% of complaints were against individuals who are now dead. Some 55% of them were sexual in nature. There have been no prosecutions in respect of 61% of all cases.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

The former Anglican bishop who oversaw the church’s allegedly “harsh” response to victims of child sexual abuse at a north coast children’s home has publicly apologised for his actions, declaring, “I’m totally humiliated.”

Keith Slater, the Bishop of Grafton from 2003 until his resignation in May this year, delivered the apology while giving evidence before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse.

The commission has heard harrowing evidence from victims of abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home, who recalled being assaulted on a regular basis by members of the clergy, other employees and residents between 1944 and 1985.

When the victims, led by Richard “Tommy” Campion, finally took the church to court in 2007, the Grafton Diocese took a “harsh”, “commercial” approach to negotiations, eventually forcing them into a settlement that left each victim with just $10,000.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

BY SAM MCKEITH AAP NOVEMBER 26, 2013

THE former head of the Grafton Anglican diocese says he is totally humiliated for personally falling “very short” in dealing with the victims of sex abuse.

Keith Slater, the former Bishop of Grafton, said he felt deep sorrow about the way he had handled claims from dozens of former residents of a children’s home on the NSW north coast.

A royal commission is examining the response of the Diocese of Grafton to claims of child abuse involving clergy and staff at the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore from 1944 to 1985.

The Sydney hearing is focused on the response to a group claim made by about 40 former residents of the home, who claimed to have suffered sexual, physical and psychological abuse there.

“I want to express my deep sorrow to those who were abused, who were claimants, during my time as the bishop of the Diocese of Grafton,” Bishop Slater told the commission on Tuesday.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

BY ASHLEIGH RAPER – ABC
November 26, 2013

A bishop has admitted to the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse that the Anglican Church was harsh in its dealing with victims from a children’s home in northern New South Wales.

A group of former residents from the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore run by the Anglican Church made a compensation claim for alleged sexual and physical abuse between the 1940s and 1980s.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking into the response from the Diocese to the allegations and how it handled the group claim.

Bishop Keith Slater held a powerful position when the former residents came forward claiming abuse.

This year he resigned as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton over his handling of the claims and has now been called to explain his actions to the commission.

During questioning, Bishop Slater told Counsel Assisting Simeon Beckett that the Church’s finances were his main concern.

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CANADA
CBC News

A Roman Catholic diocese in Nova Scotia is trying to connect with people who may have been abused by clergy, or otherwise hurt by the church.

The Diocese of Antigonish is holding a series of meetings, beginning Tuesday night, in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal.

Three years ago, the diocese reached a landmark settlement with victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Soon after that settlement was announced, then-bishop Raymond Lahey was charged with possessing and importing child pornography. He was later convicted, sentenced to time served, and defrocked by the Holy See in Rome.

Bishop Brian Dunn said these public meetings will try to address the anger and hurt that’s still out there.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Former Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton admits he had “fallen very short” in his oversight

SMILING Bishop Keith Slater smiles so much he apologised for doing it before giving evidence at the harrowing royal commission into child sex abuse today.

“I apologise in advance if I may seem to smile at time which is not appropriate,” he explained. It was just his “personality”.

But there was nothing to smile about as the commission heard a litany of Bishop Slater’s failures to help more than 40 victims of physical and sexual child abuse at the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore, adequately compensate them or report their church abusers to authorities.

“On reflection,” Bishop Slater agreed in the witness box, that withdrawing the church’s compensation offer to victims at one stage to help broker a better settlement was at odds with any kind of moral approach.

Commission chair, Justice Peter McClennan, said: “When you say ‘the settlement being brokered’ I take it what you mean is achieving the best outcome for the church?”

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

ABUSE allegations have been made against 27 Scots priests in a six-year period, a report revealed yesterday.

Figures released by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, who represent the Catholic Church in Scotland, showed 46 allegations of abuse between 2006 and 2012. More than half involved sex abuse claims.

Just over half of the accusations were made against priests, with the rest linked to volunteers, parishioners or other church staff.

Just seven – 15 per cent – have resulted in prosecution.

Archbishop of Glasgow Philip Tartaglia, president of the Bishops’ Conference, said 2013 had been “a test of faith” for Catholics.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

RALPH RIEGEL – 26 NOVEMBER 2013

A PRIEST sparked outrage when he asked Mass-goers to pray for the acquittal of a high profile politician accused of sex assault.

The Bishop of Cork and Ross moved to distance himself from comments made by the priest, who asked that former Lord Mayor of Cork John Murray be found not guilty.

Bishop Dr John Buckley described the comments as “offensive and inappropriate” and that he expects the priest’s order to address the issue.

The priest, who is not assigned to the diocese, apparently called for prayers for Murray (83) who was facing a trial in the Circuit Criminal Court on six charges of sexually assaulting a young teen.

Murray, who served as Lord Mayor of Cork in 1993-94, was convicted on five of the six charges last Friday.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY

On the first day of week two at the Eric Dejaeger trial in Iqaluit, a witness said Dejaeger told her she would go to hell if she told anyone about his sexual advances.

The woman, now 39, but a young girl at the time, said the Oblate priest fondled her during colouring time at the St. Stephen’s Catholic Church in Igloolik.

The incident forms one of many alleged to have occurred between 1978 and 1982, when Dejaeger worked as a priest in Igloolik.

Dejaeger faces 69 charges arising from information provided by 39 complainants.

The witness said she didn’t understand much English at the time, only Inuktitut, but still found herself surrounded by other children at a table in church at a religion class taught by Dejaeger, who spoke only English to them.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

[with video]

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The athletic director at Roman Catholic High School in Center City is on administrative leave.

Late last week, administration at Roman Catholic High School received an allegation that its athletic director, Sean Fitzherbert, had allegedly engaged in inappropriate conduct via computer technology with a minor attending Father Judge High School, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Monday.

Fitzherbert is currently on administrative leave, meaning that he is relieved of all duties within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Prior to beginning employment at Roman Catholic High School in July 2013, Fitzherbert’s criminal record checks and child abuse clearances were obtained. He also participated in the Archdiocesan Safe Environment Training Program, according to a spokesperson for the Archdiocese.

Fitzherbert was not previously employed with the Archdiocese.

The spokesperson says information regarding this situation was communicated to the Roman Catholic and Father Judge High School communities Monday afternoon.

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet

25 November 2013 16:41 by Sabrina Sweeney

More than half of allegations reported to the Catholic Church in Scotland over a six-year period were of a sexual nature, according to a report prepared for the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Service.

The audit report revealed that 46 allegations of abuse were reported between 2006 and 2012.

Some 55 per cent of the allegations were of a sexual nature, 19 per cent reported physical abuse, 11 per cent alleged verbal abuse and 15 per cent related to alleged emotional abuse.

More than half of the allegations – 56 per cent – were made against priests, while 22 per cent were claims against volunteers.

The audit report is one of three initiatives announced by the Catholic Church in Scotland “in a spirit of openness and transparency”, following a series of scandals, including a spate of allegations of sexual abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey School. Earlier this year the most senior Catholic in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien announced he was stepping down after allegations of sexual misconduct appeared in the press.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Mike Wade
Last updated at 9:00PM, November 25 2013

The Catholic Church has published statistics showing that about 20 priests in Scotland have been accused of sexual, physical, verbal or emotional abuse since 2006.

Figures disclosed yesterday showed that more than half of all 46 complaints of abuse made against the Church were sex-related in the six years to 2012. Priests, volunteers, employees and parishoners were included in allegations which relate to contemporary and historical cases of abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadlephia

Late last week, administration at Roman Catholic High School received an allegation that its Athletic Director, Mr. Sean Fitzherbert, had engaged in inappropriate conduct via computer technology with a minor attending Father Judge High School.

In accordance with Archdiocesan policy, this information was shared with the Philadelphia Police Department, Special Victims Unit, which is handling the ongoing investigation.

Mr. Fitzherbert is currently on administrative leave, meaning that he is relieved of all duties within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Prior to beginning employment at Roman Catholic High School in July 2013, his criminal record checks and child abuse clearances were obtained. Mr. Fitzherbert also participated in the Archdiocesan Safe Environment Training Program. He was not previously employed by any Archdiocesan entity.

Information regarding this situation was communicated to the Roman Catholic and Father Judge High School communities this afternoon.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

The athletic director at Roman Catholic High School is under police investigation for alleged inappropriate conduct with a student at another school, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Monday.

Sean Fitzherbert is on administrative leave as the police Special Victims Unit investigates an allegation that surfaced late last week that he had “engaged in inappropriate conduct via computer technology with a minor attending Father Judge High School,” said Kenneth A. Gavin, an archdiocese spokesman.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Nov. 25

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A defrocked Catholic priest, who admitted molesting in New Jersey and is accused of molesting several boys in mid-Missouri, wants to go to trial.

[Connect Mid-Missouri]

We welcome this move. We have tremendous confidence in the three brave men who have reported being abused by Fr. Gerry Howard in Boonville. We hope that the judge also lets into evidence Howard’s guilty plea in New Jersey.

At the same time, however, we strongly urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Howard’s crimes to come forward. Police and prosecutors can never have too much evidence or too many witnesses in a clergy sex abuse trial. Pedophile priests typically get top notch lawyers and exploit technicalities, often escaping responsibility for their crimes or getting little or no jail time if they are convicted.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

MEDIA ADVISORY: ATTORNEYS TO ANNOUNCE SETTLEMENT IN FR. DANIEL MCCORMACK SEXUAL ABUSE CASE

Chicago News Conference Tuesday

Attorneys to Announce Multi-Million Dollar Settlement in Sexual Abuse Case Involving
Father Daniel McCormack and the Archdiocese of Chicago

Nine additional cases settled involving multiple clerics

Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman to discuss status of the release of documents
and priest files on 30 credibly accused offenders

What: At a news conference on Tuesday, November 26, 2013, in Chicago, sexual abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman will:

• Announce a multi-million dollar settlement on behalf of a sexual abuse survivor who was abused by Father Daniel McCormack.
• Disclose additional information concerning the release of files on a total of 30 credibly accused offenders in the Archdiocese of Chicago, including photographs of those identified.
• Provide details on nine additional settlements on behalf of multiple sexual abuse survivors involving Father Robert Mayer, Father Robert Becker, Father Ralph Strand, Father Ken Ruge, Father Joseph Fitzharris, Father Robert Stepek and Father Marion Snieg.

WHEN: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 1:00PM CST

WHERE: Law Offices of Kerns, Frost & Pearlman and Jeff Anderson & Associates
*Please note address change
30 West Monroe
Suite 1600
Chicago, IL 60603

WHO: Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, lawyers specializing in sexual abuse litigation who work together on behalf of sexual abuse survivors in Illinois helping them achieve justice and healing.

Contact Marc Pearlman: Office/312.261.4550 Mobile/773.368.0142
Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.538.5049 Mobile/612.817.8665

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MISSOURI
Connect MidMissouri

by Mark Slavit

A former Boonville priest charged with 8 felony counts, including sodomy and kidnapping, wants a bench trial.

An attorney representing Gerry Howard made that request before a Cooper County judge today.

The case will be set for trial sometime after the first of the year.

Howard worked as a priest at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Boonville.

His victims said the sexual abuse happened between 1984 and 1987.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily News

Jessica Grewal 26th Nov 2013

THE royal commission into child sex abuse is expected to hear a known paedophile was allowed to work as a priest for almost 40 years – many years of which were spent in Tweed.

It’s understood while the man was convicted of indecent assault against a male in the late 1960s he remained in a position of trust with children across the NSW North Coast before his past caught up with him.

Documents tendered during the first hearings into abuse at Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home reveal Allan Kitchingman was before the courts in Newcastle when the bishop of the day recommended he be transferred to the Grafton diocese.

In a letter before the commission, the Newcastle bishop explains that Kitchingman is a “most acceptable” priest who is currently “living under a shadow” and needs to leave the diocese.

A handwritten footnote marked “highly confidential” describes Kitchingman as being popular with young people but having “some homosexual difficulties.”

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SCOTLAND
Telegraph

The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has received 25 complaints about alleged sexual abuse in the past six years

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent 25 Nov 2013

The figure emerged as the church published the results of “safeguarding audits”, covering the period from 2006 to 2012.

A total of 46 allegations of abuse, including emotional and physical abuse, were made against 27 priests and 20 volunteers and parishioners.

The Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, said in a letter read out during mass in Scotland’s 500 Catholic parishes on Sunday that 2013 had been a “test of faith”.

He added: “We recognise the trauma and pain that survivors of abuse have suffered and we are committed to providing for them both justice and healing.”

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has published details of abuse allegations made between 2006 and 2012.

The statistics showed there were 46 allegations of abuse made over the six year period, of which 56% were made against priests.

Some 55% of the allegations were of a sexual nature, 19% alleged physical abuse, 11% were verbal and 15% were emotional.

The document also revealed the results of investigations into the claims.

There have been no prosecutions in relation to 61% of all cases reported, the church said.

A further 15% resulted in a prosecution, 10% are still under investigation and the remaining 14% are described as “unknown historical cases”.

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SUITLAND (MD)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

One targets DC area Catholic facility
Hundreds of predator priests have been sent there
The center was sued this week for the first time ever
The other case let’s an accused Maryland priest “off the hook”

WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose that

–a Catholic priest accused of molesting in Baltimore won a key court case last week, and
— the first-ever clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against a Maryland facility for predator priests was filed last week.

They will also urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes in the state to “speak up,

WHEN:
Monday, Nov. 25 at 11:30 a.m.

WHERE:
On the sidewalk in front of the Saint Luke’s Institute – 8901 New Hampshire Ave Silver Spring, MD 20903

WHO:
Four to five members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY:
1)Last week, apparently for the first time ever, a Catholic facility in Maryland that has housed hundreds of predator priests was named as a defendant in a civil clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit.

[Star Tribune]

[Pioneer Press]

The suit, filed Tuesday in Dakota County Minnesota, was brought by a Minnesota man who charges that Fr. Francis Hoefgen sexually abused him after the priest “graduated” from sex offender treatment at the St. Luke’s Institute in Suitland and was then put back in to a church with no warning to the parishioners.

Before being sent to the center, Fr. Hoefgen admitted to police that he had twice performed oral sex on a boy, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

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BRASIL
G1

Mariana Oliveira
Do G1, em Brasília

A Terceira Turma do Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) decidiu, por unanimidade, manter decisão que condenou a Diocese de Umuarama, no Paraná, e um padre do local a pagarem indenização de R$ 100 mil a um garoto que sofreu abuso sexual quando dia 14 anos, em 2002. O fato ocorreu na cidade paranaense de São Tomé, que faz parte da Diocese de Umuarama.

A decisão foi tomada em julgamento realizado na terça-feira passada (19) na análise de um recurso da Diocese, que questionou condenação no Tribunal de Justiça do Paraná. O TJ havia reconhecido “ato ilícito” do padre com “responsabilidade civil” da Igreja. Cada um foi condenado a pagar R$ 50 mil “de forma solidária”.

No processo, a Diocese de Umuarama argumentou que não houve responsabilidade solidária, uma vez que os atos foram “exclusivamente” praticados pelo padre que “desenvolvia trabalho voluntário e vocacional de ordem religiosa”. O TJ, porém, entendeu que o fato de ele cumprir funções e horários foram “suficiente para configurar a relação de preposição”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Nov. 25, 2013 NCR Today

The Vatican’s top prosecutor for sex abuse cases says Rome is “well aware” of how frustrated many people are with perceived confusion about how to hold bishops accountable when they’re accused of failing to make a “zero tolerance” policy stick and hopes a solution will emerge from debates over curial reform under Pope Francis.

Fr. Robert Oliver, a New York native who helped lead recovery efforts from the abuse crisis in the Boston archdiocese before being appointed as the Promoter of Justice in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in late 2012, spoke to NCR on Friday.

He made the comment on accountability in the context of a question about Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., who was convicted in September 2012 of a misdemeanor crime of failure to report a priest suspected of abuse and has remained in office.

This week, Oliver will be in the United Kingdom for a series of talks as well as meetings with abuse victims and child services professionals. It marks a fairly rare public outing for the 53-year-old canon lawyer, who so far has not developed the same high profile as his predecessor, Charles Scicluna, a Maltese cleric who became the face and voice of the cleanup effort on sex abuse under Pope Benedict XVI before returning to Malta as an auxiliary bishop a year ago. …

Other highlights from his NCR interview:

* Oliver asserted that recent reports suggest “a dramatic drop in incidents of abuse” committed by Catholic personnel, confirming, in his view, that “the church has made great strides in all parts of the world.”
* He conceded that in some instances, processing abuse cases both at the local level and in Rome “takes too long” and said his office is working on the problem.
* Oliver said in an average month today, the number of abuse cases reported to Rome is in the dozens, most dating from the distant past.
* He commends the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child for taking an interest in child sexual abuse, including the Vatican’s record on the problem, despite suspicions in some Catholic circles that it’s an excuse for attacking the church. He confirmed that the Vatican is preparing a response for the committee ahead of a scheduled Jan. 16 hearing in Geneva.
* Without commenting directly on recent charges of abuse against a papal nuncio in the Dominican Republic, Oliver said such situations offer a reminder that the problem “never goes away” but also that “the changes the church has made are working.”
* Oliver said it’s legitimate for church leaders to be concerned about the impact of litigation related to the abuse scandals, but they need to make clear that “our main concern is not about protecting the church’s money.”

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Pat Comben, former registrar of the Grafton Anglican Church diocese and former Education Minister in the Queensland State Government, made a very (melo?)dramatic move outside the Royal Commission before giving evidence. He signed the “letter of holy orders relinquishment,” in public.

“Fifty years in the Church and I do not know if I can even say I am a Christian. Some of us have some guilt and take some responsibility for this,” Mr Comben said, outside the commission today, after he had completed two days of evidence. Mr Comben claimed that, if he did not take the line he did and keep compensation low, he would have been sacked.

As a former politician, Mr. Comben has been in receipt of a generous parliamentary pension. After he left parliament, he was director of the Wildlife Preservation Society, consultant for the Rowland Company and an environmental reporter for Channel 7 television (see http://www.crikey.com.au/2005/03/12/when-generous-pensions-are-not-enough/).

Since retiring recently from his job with the Anglican Church, he has operated the Koala Villas Caravan (trailer) Park at 539 Pacific Highway, Boambee NSW 2450, in the Grafton area. Apparently, he has had some property investments. A testimonial he provided for his local real estate agent reads, in part, “We have dealt with (redacted) over a number of years to buy and sell properties In some difficult situations we have encountered with tenants, (redacted) has dealt with the issues calmly and effectively leading to positive outcomes for all.”

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

Paul Berger’s Response to Sam Kellner’s Attorney

By Niall MacGiollabhui

In the letter posted below, Niall MacGiollabhui responds to the Forward’s November 14, 2013 article, “Sam Kellner’s Tangled Hasidic Tale of Child Sex Abuse, Extortion and Faith; Is Alleged Shakedown Artist a Hero or Crook?” The article discussed controversies surrounding two separate, ongoing criminal prosecutions-one of Mr. Kellner and one of Baruch Lebovits. Mr. MacGiollabui represents Mr. Kellner.

I write this letter on behalf of my client, Sam Kellner, in response to the article that was published online on November 14, 2013 by the Forward headlined: “Sam Kellner’s Tangled Hasidic Tale of Child Sex Abuse, Extortion and Faith,” “Is Alleged Shakedown Artist a Hero or Crook?”

According to Mr. Berger, the author of the article, he looked deeply into the unraveling prosecution of Sam by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office “largely at the urging of [Baruch] Lebovits’s family.” Baruch Lebovits is an alleged pedophile whose conviction in 2010 was overturned in 2012 on a technicality, and is facing retrial. His family claims that Sam tried to extort them after being told by his son that Lebovits molested him and after other victims came forward. The family also maintains that Lebovits is innocent of the many heinous accusations leveled against him by multiple victims. Offering this disclosure, however, does not excuse or mitigate what is disclosed: Mr. Berger put himself and your paper at the service of a notorious, longtime, alleged pedophile who, it seems, is desperately trying to avoid retrial and the justice his alleged evil deeds deserve.

Mr. Berger contacted me in early November, we spoke at length, and he provided me with a list of questions addressed to my client. Based on the form of the questions, which was accusatory, I told him it appeared his proposed article would adopt the prosecution perspective of Sam’s case.

(Nonetheless, I continued, we were willing to answer any questions he wished to ask and provide him with any material he sought.) On the contrary, Mr. Berger assured me, the article would be a balanced one examining the merits or otherwise of the prosecutions against both Sam and Lebovits. He further proclaimed by email on November 8: “I have asked the hard questions of both sides. That’s what I do.” For anyone who reads Mr. Berger’s article, the sound to be heard is the Lebovits family laughing out loud.

I made a simple inquiry of Mr. Berger: have you found a single shred of credible evidence to support the accusation that Sam Kellner attempted to extort the Lebovits family by claiming he controlled two victims, other than his son – identified in the article as Y.R. and M.T., respectively – who reported being abused by Baruch Lebovits. (The other accusation, that Sam bribed M.T. to falsely testify, is generally accepted to have been thoroughly discredited). Ten questions were emailed to me for my client to answer. The first five related to a secret recording made by Meyer Lebovits, a son of Baruch Lebovits, of a conversation with Sam in May 2009, supposed to be the “smoking gun” in the case. I asked Mr. Berger why he used his own, at times inaccurate, characterizations of the tape’s content, rather than the content itself, as the basis of his questions. He sheepishly conceded that he did not really analyze the content of the tape, relied on a transcript given to him by the Lebovits family, and volunteered that I understood it a lot better than he did. To help Mr. Berger, I emailed him the transcript provided by the District Attorney’s office, which he hadn’t seen. By email on November 7, I stated to him: “[I]f what is alleged against Sam was true, you would expect him somewhere in the course of 161 pages [of the transcript] to say he “controls” YR and MT and that’s why a trial [of Baruch Lebovits] won’t happen. As you know, it’s nowhere to be found. Likewise, when he’s asked repeatedly what he wants by Meyer [Lebovits], you would expect him to demand money. Again, nowhere to be found. Either he’s the world’s worst extortionist or he’s innocent.” Mr. Berger, however, quickly lost interest in the tape (as shown by the single thoroughly bland paragraph in his article in which he refers to its content), once he realized it didn’t support his pernicious agenda.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

Sam Kellner’s Attorney Responds to Forward Article

By Paul Berger
Published November 24, 2013.

Setting aside the hyperbole and mischaracterizations deployed liberally throughout Mr. MacGiollabhui’s letter, I would like to correct one of his primary assertions and also to answer his questions.

My article did not, as Mr. MacGiollabhui implied, attempt to find evidence that “Sam Kellner attempted to extort the Lebovits family.” Instead, I showed how Kellner’s involvement in the Lebovits prosecution went way beyond the actions of a wounded father looking for justice for his abused son. Readers can judge whether the evidence I marshaled in this respect was compelling.

Mr. MacGiollabhui asks at the end of his letter why he was not given several recordings referenced in the story. As I explained to Mr. MacGiollabhui during my reporting, I could not release the recordings to him because of commitments I made to the sources who provided them.

Mr. MacGiollabhui’s assertion that I claim in my article that Mr. MacGiollabhui would not comment upon one of the tapes “except in response to hearing the whole tape, is wholly dishonest” — is itself dishonest. Instead, in the article, I state that Mr. MacGiollabhui said he “preferred to respond after hearing the tape in full.” This is correct.

My agreement with a confidential source permitted me to use only excerpts of the tape with Mr. Kellner’s voice. I did send short audio and text excerpts to Mr. MacGiollabhui on November 6. When these proved insufficient, I offered to try to get further excerpts, as Mr. MacGiollabhui correctly points out.

However, Mr. MacGiollabhui omits that shortly after our conversation, the content of my November 6 email, which Mr. MacGiollabhui told me he shared only with his client, appeared on the website of an anonymous blogger — and cheerleader for Kellner — under the headline: “Which Lazy Journalist Will Take the Dershowitz Bait?http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/which-lazy-journalist-will-take-the-dershowitz-bait/” This attempt to preempt my story before it had been published destroyed my confidence that anything further I sent to Mr. MacGiollabhui for his client would not be publicized elsewhere before my story was published.

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RUSSIA
Interfax

St. Petersburg, November 25, Interfax – The business trip of priest Gleb Grozovsky, who is accused of child molestation, has been officially stopped, Alexander Asonov, press officer for the Gatchina Diocese, told Interfax.

“Father Gleb’s business trip to Israel automatically stopped when he was suspended from service,” Asonov said.

Asonov reiterated that the Gatchina Diocese encourages Grozovsky to return to Russia and cooperate with the investigators. “We don’t support his delay in Israel,” he said.

According to earlier reports, Grozovsky, the former senior priest of a church in the Leningrad Region, is accused of molesting two schoolgirls. A criminal case has been opened against him based on Part 4 of Article 132 of the Russian Criminal Code (molesting a child younger than 14).

According to information possessed by the investigators, Grozovsky, who is accused of molesting two schoolgirls, was suspended from service for the period of the investigation into his case on November 18.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Sam Kellner’s attorney Niall MacGiollabhui wrote a long letter to the Forward rightly criticizing Paul Berger’s mistake-ridden, biased article on Kellner published November 14.

If you don’t know the case, Kellner’s attorney’s letter will be difficult to follow. So I suggest you read my refutation of Berger’s article first. It will make Kellner’s attorney’s letter somewhat easier to follow.

In his response, Berger essentially claims the Forward did not give Kellner and his attorney extended excerpts from the tape that supposedly incriminates him because Berger did not want to be scooped by a leak from Kellner. How this excuses publishing a hit piece full of inaccuracies is beyond me. But even more so, how can that be used as an excuse not to give Kellner extended excerpts now?

Kellner’s attorney calls Berger a “useful idiot” for the Lebovits family and calls him a lazy, shoddy reporter – all true in my estimation.

But most devastating are the number of things Kellner’s attorney points out Berger did not know about the case and Berger’s near-complete lack of curiosity about the actual evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

Deacon quits church in protest moments before taking stand at royal commission into child sex abuse

MATTHEW BENNS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NOVEMBER 26, 2013

THE deacon who led the Anglican Church’s response to allegations of child abuse in Lismore quit the church in protest just moments before stepping into the witness box at the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Pat Comben, former registrar at the Diocese of Grafton, said he should no longer be referred to by the title reverend and was not even sure he could still call himself a Christian after 50 years in the church.

The royal commission is examining the response of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton to harrowing claims of physical and sexual child abuse over a 48-year period and involving 12 members of clergy and staff at the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

“Some of us do have some guilt and take some responsibility for this,” he said after a gruelling two days of evidence finished yesterday.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

MORE than 1000 angry church-goers have signed a petition demanding a suspended priest be reinstated.

Helen Ann Hawkins, 40, set up the campaign after Father Matthew Despard was told he was being stripped of his duties after failing to meet with Bishop Joseph Toal.

The decision came eight months after he self-published his book Priesthood in Crisis, which accused the Catholic Church of covering up sexual bullying.

But his supporters have given him strong backing, signing an online petition as well as a separate paper petition in their droves.

Now Helen plans to take the campaign to Bishop Toal, who announced the decision to suspend him eight days ago, then on to the Vatican.

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UNITED STATES
Michigan Chronicle

Written by Aubrey J. Lynch Sunday, 24 November 2013

The title is taken from words spoken by Pope Francis as reported at rawstory.com on Oct. 21 of 2013. In his brief words, the Pope took issue with those who are so focused on ideology that any indication of love, compassion, understanding and other higher level facets of humanity are lost.

These are powerful, near shocking words to come from the leader of the centuries old Catholic church. The new Pope likely uses messages such as this one to let the world know how he is working to change the institution that has done so much in recent years to attack gays and women.

Bishops of the Catholic Church had put themselves so far out into the public spotlight that they appeared to be campaigning for Republicans in their efforts to defeat the Affordable Care Act. This view has been borne out by a recent article in the National Catholic Reporter on Nov. 14. The article reveals that many bishops are afraid that focusing on economic issues in support of the poor will alienate their Republican donors and help the Democrats. Those donors would then not support the bishops’ focus on gays, abortion and religious liberty.

An article in Enlightened Catholicism tells us that the billionaire Koch Brothers gave a million dollars to the Catholic University of America. In their cozy relationship with the Republicans and their billionaire supporters, the bishops came dangerously close to sedition, if not treason, as they pounded away at “religious freedom” in their attempts to subvert the law of the land that had given women access to insurance to help them control the timing and process of reproduction.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published November 25, 2013.

When an investigative team appointed by Yeshiva University reported in August that the school had “failed to appropriately act to protect the safety of its students or did not respond” to credible allegations that they’d been sexually abused, it drew an important caveat: This dereliction of responsibility had continued, the investigators said, “until 2001.”

After that, “the University acted decisively to address the allegations,” the investigators stated.

As a result of these findings, Y.U.’s current president, Richard Joel, was spared any stigma stemming from the scandal, which involved several decades of alleged sexual abuse by faculty and staff. The problem was pegged instead to the tenure of his predecessor, Rabbi Norman Lamm.

But internal documents obtained by the Forward indicate that, in fact, Joel, who arrived at Y.U. in 2003, was told both before and after he became president about allegations against Rabbi George Finkelstein, the former principal of a Y.U. high school — and that he declined to intervene in the first instance or respond in the second.

The documents show that Mordechai Twersky, a Y.U. alum who is now one of 34 former students suing Y.U. for having failed to protect them, approached Joel in 2000 and again in 2004 to complain about the abuse he had suffered as a high school student at Finkelstein’s hands. But Joel did not take those complaints seriously, according to the documents.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP NOVEMBER 25, 2013

A FORMER politician who became registrar of a NSW Anglican diocese at the centre of an abuse inquiry has denied playing community politics over a group claim from people who suffered abuse.

Pat Comben, who served in the Queensland government in the 1990s was registrar at the diocese of Grafton when 42 former residents of the North Coast Children’s Home started legal action over sexual, psychological and physical abuse at the home over for decades to the early 80s.

Mr Comben who is continuing his evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse said on Monday he sent out a press release in response to a story in the Northern Star about the allegations.

In the release, which was recalled after a legal threat by the solicitor for the claimants, Mr Comben said he saw “these matters as being a challenge to the very community of Lismore”.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Four years after an Anglican clergyman was jailed for sexually abusing children at a NSW Anglican home he was still on the Church’s “stud book”, a witness has told a national abuse inquiry.

The official Anglican directory of clergy was jokingly referred to as the stud book, a former registrar of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton told the national inquiry into child sex abuse in Sydney on Monday.

Pat Comben, apologised for the use of the “totally inappropriate name”, which he used when he was being questioned about what he did about disciplining Rev Allan Kitchingman, a convicted sex offender.

Kitchingman was jailed for two and a half years in 2002 for indecent assault on two boys who were under his care at the North Coast Children’s Home, when he was chaplain in the 1970s.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

By LINDA WOODHEAD

Pope Francis is full of surprises. This month he launched a survey of Catholic opinion in order to inform a special synod on the family scheduled to meet in Rome next October. Not surprisingly, it’s caught many national conferences of bishops on the hop. Under John Paul II and Benedict XIV they’d got used to a Vatican which looked inwards rather that outwards for authority. A favourite text was Lumen Gentium’s passage which insists that the magisterium of the Pontiff requires “religious submission of mind and will.” A survey of ordinary Catholics sits oddly with this stance. What can it mean?

Catholic opinion is divided on the answer. Conservatives say the survey’s designed to do no more than expose how the church’s irreformable teaching on family and sex needs to be strengthened. It will aid in the re-confessionalisation of the faithful, helping gather strayed sheep back to the fold. Reformists say the opposite. They welcome the initiative as a sign that Francis really cares about what ordinary Catholics think, and that Vatican II’s claim that the Church is “the whole people of God” is at last being made good.

A closer look at the questionnaire supports the conservative view over the reformist one, for it’s not a survey in any sense that a social scientist would recognize. The 38 questions are larded with theological jargon, and will leave many of the faithful scratching their heads and Googling the Catholic Encyclopedia. Take question 1a, for example:

Describe how the Catholic Church’s teachings on the value of the family contained in the Bible, Guadium et spes, Familiaris consortio and other documents of the post-consiliar Magisterium is understood by people today?

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SCOTLAND
Edinburgh Evening News

FORMER Church of Scotland Moderator the Very Rev Dr Andrew McLellan has been appointed to look into safeguarding procedures in the Catholic Church.

Dr McLellan, former minister of St Andrew’s and St George’s Church in George Street, is also a former chief inspector of prisons for 
Scotland.

The move comes as it was revealed a dossier of documents containing allegations of more than 20 cases of abuse in the Catholic Church has been passed to police.

Confidential letters from Scottish bishops, dating back to 1995 and including every diocese in Scotland, will be reviewed by Police Scotland, the force ­confirmed.

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SCOTLAND
Bishops’ Conference of Scotland

Introduction

Each year the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Service (formerly National Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults) in the person of the National Co-ordinator presents a report to the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland at their November meeting which details an Audit of the eight dioceses in Scotland in relation to the work of safeguarding in the previous calendar year. For example the 2012 Audit was presented earlier this month to the Bishops’ Conference. The process began with an audit in 2006, by 2007 the format was established.

The Audit contains details of how safe environments are created with disclosure checks on those involved with children and vulnerable adults in a Church setting. When the Disclosure Scotland scheme was introduced it was decided by the Bishops that all Clergy, anyone applying for seminary and all volunteers in parishes would be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure, the most rigorous level. All employees of the Church engaged in work with children or vulnerable adults are required at recruitment to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure. This Disclosure scheme is presently being systematically replaced by the PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) scheme.

As well as Disclosure/PVG Training plays an important role in creating safe environments. The current national safeguarding training programme developed by professionals within the Catholic Church is called “Awareness and Safety in Our Catholic Communities”. The training programme includes a Welcome Guide for all volunteers in the parishes with clear guidance about appropriate safeguarding procedures and good practice. This training is mandatory and delivered by experienced and trained Diocesan safeguarding Trainers. The Audit contains details about the training undertaken annually.

Finally, the Audit presented to the Bishops’ Conference contains details of any allegations which have been made and how these have been dealt with.

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SCOTLAND
Belfast Telegraph

25 NOVEMBER 2013

More than half of all complaints of abuse received by the Catholic Church in Scotland over a six-year period were sex-related, according to a report.

The church has published the results of its Diocesan Safeguarding Audits from 2006/12, giving a breakdown of incidents reported during that time.

A total of 46 allegations were reported, of which 55% related to sexual abuse, 19% to physical abuse, 11% were allegations of verbal abuse and 15% were in connection with emotional abuse.

Of those accused , 56% were priests , 22% were volunteers, 11% were parishioners and the remainder were staff or other people connected to the church.

There have been no prosecutions in relation to 61% of all cases reported, the church said. A further 15% resulted in a prosecution, 10% are still under investigation and the remaining 14% are described as “unknown historical cases”.

More than a quarter of all the accused reported (27%) are now dead, according to the audit report prepared for the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Service.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Media Office

Scotland’s Catholic Bishops announce range of safeguarding initiatives.

Monday 25 November 2013.

Embargo 11.00

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland has today announced details of three safeguarding initiatives, which will be launched over the next 12 months. In a letter read out at all of Scotland’s 500 Catholic parishes yesterday (24 November, the Feast of Christ the King) the President of the Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia said:

“We recognise the trauma and pain that survivors of abuse have suffered and we are committed to providing for them both justice and healing.” The Archbishop added that 2013 had been “a test of faith” for Catholics, but the Church was committed to “consolidation of our safeguarding practices, the renewal of trust in our unshakeable commitment to atoning for abuse in the past, guarding against abuse in the present and eliminating abuse in the future, and supporting those who have been harmed.”

Archbishop Tartaglia also promised that all the initiatives were being “launched in a spirit of openness and transparency” and in recognition of the fact that “safeguarding is a priority within the Church, and all who work in the Church must realise this.”
The initiatives concerned are:

1. Immediate publication of all Diocesan Safeguarding Audits from 2006-2012, giving a statistical breakdown of reported safeguarding incidents during those years.

2. An external “Review of Safeguarding Protocols and Procedures” which will review the suitability and robustness of safeguarding procedures and the quality and rigour of their implementation nationally. The Very Rev Dr Andrew McLellan, CBE, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and former Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons will direct this.

3. A Statistical Review of all Historic Cases of Abuse from 1947-2005

A full description of each of these processes is given below.

Commenting on his participation in the review process, Dr McLellan said:

“I have agreed to chair the review panel which will instigate and complete a review of ‘Awareness and Safety’ in the Catholic Church in Scotland. My appointment is a generous sign of respect not simply for me but for the Church of Scotland; and I am pleased to be able to help the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland in what has been for them a difficult year. But my first concern is not to support the Catholic church: rather it is to seek the best protection of many vulnerable children and adults. In pursuing that aim I will be determined to discover the truth and to make clear recommendations. I am very much encouraged by the independence I will have in selecting the membership of the panel, detailing its remit and deciding on its timescale; and by the assurance I have been given that the Catholic Bishops will accept our recommendations.”

Dr McLellan added: “Over the remaining weeks of 2013, I hope to turn my attention to these matters so that I can announce the particulars of the review process and structure early in 2014.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 25 November 2013

A Catholic abuse survivors’ group has praised the Church’s groundbreaking decision to reveal full sets of figures relating to maltreatment claims against priests and members of religious orders in Scotland.

The measure to publish annual and historic figures emerged in a letter by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland which was read out at masses across the country.

It includes the publication of figures relating to complaints made against priests, nuns and monks dating back to 2006 and a statistical review of historic cases from 1947 to 2005. Helen Holland, chairwoman of In Care Abuse Survivors, said that the development, which begins today, would be a major step towards making the Catholic Church more transparent about its past and in the future.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 25 November 2013

More than half of all complaints of abuse received by the Catholic Church in Scotland over a six-year period were sex-related, according to a report.

The church has published the results of its Diocesan Safeguarding Audits from 2006/12, giving a breakdown of incidents reported during that time.

A total of 46 allegations were reported, of which 55% related to sexual abuse, 19% to physical abuse, 11% were allegations of verbal abuse and 15% were in connection with emotional abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan | 25 November 2013

Police Victoria badgeAustralia’s quest to uncover the plague of child abuse and put right the failure of government and non-government organisations (including churches) to deal compassionately and justly with victims, and firmly and appropriately with perpetrators, continues. Quite rightly, the Catholic Church remains in the spotlight. In February, retired judge Tony Whitlam QC reported on the ‘Father F’ Case in Armidale. He highlighted that all the blame did not lie just with the deceased bishop Kennedy. There were systemic failures not just in the Church but also with psychologists, the police and the courts.

This month, the Victorian parliamentary committee’s report ‘Betrayal Of Trust: Inquiry Into The Handling Of Child Abuse By Religious And Other Non-Government Organisations’ was published.

The Catholic Church hierarchy now seems more prepared to admit institutional and personal failures prior to 1996 when Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response were instituted. They are yet to admit the pervasive, closed clericalist culture which infected the Church until at least 1996. But that will come.

Cardinal Pell who had been an auxiliary bishop in the Melbourne Archdiocese from 1987 to 1996 when he then was made Archbishop told the Victorian inquiry:

As an auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Little I did not have the authority to handle these matters and had only some general impressions about the response that was being made at that time, but this was sufficient to make it clear to me that this was an issue which needed urgent attention and that we needed to do much better in our response.

Understandably, this left many people inside and outside the Church wondering, ‘If Archbishop Little didn’t act between 1987 and 1996, why didn’t his auxiliary Bishop Pell try to do something?’ and ‘If the Archbishop knew during those nine years, why didn’t his Auxiliary?’

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RWANDA
allAfrica

The New Times

BY JOSEPH OINDO, 24 NOVEMBER 2013

In the Old Testament, there are stories of sexual abuse, meaning that this is not a thing that is only plaguing modern society. In 2 Samuel, the Bible documents the story of Amnon, David’s son, contriving to have his half-sister Tamar alone in order to have incestuous sex with her.

Modern society has seen rising cases of sexual abuse, reported in the media while many of them go unreported. Teachers have been caught up in sexual liaison with students, priests have been accused of paedophile while parents have been caught in incest with their daughters.

Pope Benedict is reported to have admitted that sexual abuse of minors plagued the Catholic Church during his papacy. “As far as you mentioning the moral abuse of minors by priests, I can only, as you know, acknowledge it with profound consternation…,” he said.

According to Justin Halcomb in Grace and Truth, “sexual assault is a sin against God because the blessing of sexuality is used to destroy instead of build intimacy and because it is an attack against His image in His image-bearers. The ability of sexual assault to obscure internal and external relationships makes it a cosmic affront to the Creator and the order of his creation. Sexual assault is a sin against God because it violates his most sacred creation-human beings made in His image.”

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

Homily Notes of Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin
Saint Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, 24th November 2013

“For over a year now the Church has been celebrating a Year of Faith. The year ends today as we celebrate the final Sunday of the Liturgical Year – the Feast of Christ the King.

The word “king” is a little foreign to us who really only know democratic government. That is not important. Jesus never wanted to be a king in any political sense. His kingdom was not of this world. His reign was not to be one of domination and power but of service.

Yet it is interesting to recall that the term “king” appears at the very first moments of the life of Jesus on earth and at the very last moments of his life. At the first Christmas, the angels announce to the shepherds that “a king” has been born. On the cross of Jesus is written “Jesus of Nazareth, King”.

Some of the theologians of the early Church referred to Jesus’ kingship as a “kingship of wood”: the only time that his kingship is unequivocally recognised is on the wood of the cross, when that inscription “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” is placed above his dying body. We can only understand the kingship of Jesus when we understand the mystery of the Cross. “Jesus, the king” undergoes the death of a criminal, yet what appears to the world as an ignominious death opens the possibility for Jesus’ true kingship to be recognised and to spread.

On the Feast of Christ the King, we remember that that spreading of the kingdom of Jesus will only come to its conclusion when the salvation won for us by Jesus on the Cross is fully reflected in the life of our world and in the way we live. What does God’s kingdom look like? We hear that in the preface of today’s Mass. The kingdom of Jesus is “a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace”.

When we look at the world around us we must quickly recognise that we have a long way to travel before our world truly mirrors that vision of God’s kingdom. Evil and corruption, exploitation and violence still abound. Not everything that was introduced as progress has turned out to be true progress for the human community or the human soul. Human progress does not depend only on scientific progress or economic growth or political power. Progress requires justice. But justice will remain only a word if it is not accompanied by caring and solidarity, by compassion and understanding.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

SARAH MAC DONALD – 25 NOVEMBER 2013

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has rebuked those in the Catholic Church who were “all too slow” in recognising the extent of the “criminal abuse of children” by priests.

He was speaking at a Mass to mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Child Safeguarding and Protection Office in the archdiocese of Dublin.

SURVIVORS

At a ceremony in the Pro-Cathedral attended by 400 child safeguarding representatives from parishes across Dublin, as well as priests and representatives of survivors of abuse, Dr Martin said the church needed to do more to reach out to survivors of clerical abuse.

The Archbishop urged the church to create “an open door and a safe space for those survivors who still fear telling their story and who still live alone with their anguish”.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the Archbishop explained that from his meetings with survivors, he realised that some of them “are in a lonely place”.

“Very often they have nobody to talk to – they are not a member of an association. They were abused in a way that the pressure was put on them to keep it secret.”

He said they would like to have a space where they could come together, meet one another and support one another.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Post by ROB SHRYOCK

When a pastor resigns after his 77-church network is implicated in “the largest evangelical sex abuse scandal to date,” how long does it take for him to regain the trust of his colleagues?

The answer, apparently, is 7 months. CJ Mahaney, the founding pastor of Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), recently spoke at a conference called “Conviction to Lead 2013” at an SGM megachurch in Knoxville after a long absence from the public eye.

The lawsuit against SGM, which fizzled out in the late spring due to statutes of limitations, alleged that church leaders, including Mahaney, had actively worked to protect multiple abuse perpetrators while harassing and intimidating victims into silence. As T.F. Charlton wrote here on RD back in March:

The suit has been filed not only on behalf of the individual plaintiffs [8 at this point], but also on behalf of a much larger class of people allegedly abused as minors in SGM, who do not wish to come forward with their stories. The suit alleges that the potential additional victims are too many to be included as individual plaintiffs in the suit because SGM’s leaders have cultivated an “environment conducive to and protective of physical and sexual abuse of children.”

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Anglican Church official Pat Comben quizzed in Royal Commission over response to child sex abuse at North Coast Children’s Home

BY ASHLEIGH RAPER – ABC
November 25, 2013

The Royal Commission into child abuse has heard a former Anglican Church official responsible for responding to historic abuse claims did not pass on allegations to police.

The former registrar of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton, Pat Comben, today took the stand for a second day at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Mr Comben, who had previously served as Queensland education minister under premier Wayne Goss, was the first to receive claims about the North Coast Children’s Home at Lismore.

He has faced intense scrutiny about the evidence given to the commission by former residents of the home about the physical and sexual abuse they suffered between the 1940s and 1980s.

Witnesses at the commission last week criticised Mr Comben’s handling of the allegations and subsequent negotiations for compensation, with his actions described as cruel and inappropriate.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From: The Australian
November 25, 2013

THE priest who was at the centre of handling a group claim from abuse victims at an Anglican Church children’s home in NSW has quit, saying he is no longer sure he call himself a Christian.

Former registrar of the Grafton Diocese, Pat Comben said he had taken the view that he had some guilt and responsibility in the mishandling of the claims by 42 former residents of the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore who suffered shocking sexual and physical abuse.

He said on Monday he was quitting because history is being re-written by some members of the church.

Mr Comben said he had signed the letter of holy orders relinquishment outside the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse on Friday. That was just before he took the stand to give evidence into the diocese’s handling of allegations by former residents of the home.

“Fifty years in the Church and I do not know if I can even say I am a Christian,” said Mr Comben outside the commission on Monday after he had completed two days of evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

By Annette Blackwell
From: AAP
November 25, 2013

AFTER 50 years in the church, an Anglican priest says he doesn’t know if he can say he’s a Christian.

The priest, who was central to handling a group claim from people who suffered abuse in a NSW Anglican children’s home, has announced he is quitting the clergy.

In a surprise revelation at Monday’s hearing into how the Anglican Church dealt with victims of abuse at a children’s home in Lismore, the former registrar of the Grafton Diocese, Pat Comben, said he had relinquished holy orders.

Mr Comben was the first to hear of the allegations of abuse at the home and was central to the diocese’s handling of them for three years.

He said he’d signed the papers to leave the ministry on Friday, before taking the stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

A FORMER moderator of the Church of Scotland is to head an inquiry into how the Catholic Church in Scotland handles sex abuse allegations.

The Very Reverend Dr Andrew McLellan’s overhaul of the Church’s safeguarding procedures follows scandals relating to inappropriate sexual conduct of priests.

Earlier this year, the Catholic Church was rocked by revelations of alleged abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands.

Former pupils claim they were molested and beaten by monks who taught them decades ago.

Police are investigating and it has emerged at least 20 other cases of abuse are being probed in Scotland.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The priest who was at the centre of handling a group claim from abuse victims at an Anglican Church children’s home in NSW has quit, saying he is no longer sure he call himself a Christian.

Former registrar of the Grafton Diocese, Pat Comben said he had taken the view that he had some guilt and responsibility in the mishandling of the claims by 42 former residents of the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore who suffered shocking sexual and physical abuse.

He said on Monday he was quitting because history is being re-written by some members of the church.

Mr Comben said he had signed the letter of holy orders relinquishment outside the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse on Friday. That was just before he took the stand to give evidence into the diocese’s handling of allegations by former residents of the home.

‘Fifty years in the Church and I do not know if I can even say I am a Christian,’ said Mr Comben outside the commission on Monday after he had completed two days of evidence.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by TRISTAN STEWART-ROBERTSON
Published on the 25 November 2013

A DOSSIER of documents containing allegations of more than 20 cases of abuse in the Catholic Church has been passed to police.

Confidential letters from Scottish bishops, dating back to 1995 and including every diocese in Scotland, will be reviewed by Police Scotland, the force ­confirmed.

In one, a bishop describes abuse against “two severely mentally-handicapped young female adults”, according to reports in a Sunday newspaper. Another reportedly refers to a 15-year-old boy as “sexually mature”.

Former advisor to the Motherwell diocese, Alan Draper, called for criminal investigations and an independent Scottish Government inquiry into sexual abuse in the Church.

The revelation came as it was revealed that a former moderator of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly has been asked to look into safeguarding procedures in the Catholic church. Andrew McLellan, who is also a former chief inspector of prisons for Scotland, will oversee the review.

Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said the Church has co-operated with police and would continue to do so.

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UNITED STATES
The Awareness Center

Below is a list of Rabbis who support the efforts of The Awareness Center. If you are a rabbi (of any recognized affiliation) and would like to be included, please send an email to: VickiPolin or a “snail mail”, with a note giving us permission to add your name on your synagogues stationary. Please include your full name, synagogue, organization, city, state, and country.

If you are or are not a rabbi, please share this request for supporters with every rabbi you know.

List of Rabbis
Rabbi Jonathan F. Adland – Indianapolis, IN

Rabbi Barbara Aiello – Milan, Italy

Rabbi Morris Allen – Mendota Heights, MN

Rabbi Ruth Alpers – Cincinnati, OH

Rabbi Camille Shira Angel – San Francisco, CA

Rabbi Benjamin Arnold – Evergreen, CO

Rabbi Stephen A. Arnold – South Easton, MA

Rabbi Jeffrey Astrachan – Old Bethpage, NY

Rabbi Craig Axler – Spring House, PA

Rabbi Ian J. Azizollahoff – New York, NY

Rabbi Stephen Baars – North Bethesda, MD

Rabbi Jeremy Barras – Charlotte, NC


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SCOTLAND
STV

The Catholic Church in Scotland for the first time publish a breakdown of complaints of abuse and misconduct as it responds to a series of scandals.

It will give details how many ‘safeguarding’ incidents in each dioceses, their type, the category of victim and perpetrator, as well as the outcome of the investigation as part of a new policy.

The church also said it will bring in the former moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Andrew McLellan to review its procedures.

The church also announced a statistical review of historic abuse cases between 1947 and 2005

The moves come after the church has been hit by a series of scandals. It faced allegations of sexual abuse at its Fort Augustus Abbey school, while the most senior Catholic in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien announced he was stepping down earlier this year over allegations of “sexual misconduct”.

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SCOTLAND
Paisley Daily Express

Nov 24 2013

The Catholic Church in Scotland has said it will publish a review into cases of reported abuse over a period spanning more than five years.

The church will give details of the number of incidents reported between 2006 to 2012, their nature and the results of investigations into them, members have been told.

It is also expected to announce a further audit of all cases of historic abuse allegations between 1947 and 2005 and a full review of its safeguarding procedures.

The three initiatives, it says, are being launched ” in a spirit of openness and transparency”.

Members of the Catholic community were told about the plans at Mass today. A formal announcement by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland will be made at 11am tomorrow.

Bishops of the eight Scottish dioceses make up the Bishops’ Conference, which represents the Catholic Church in Scotland.

A letter read to mass-goers said: “T he Bishops wish to say on behalf of the Catholic Church in Scotland that we recognise the trauma and pain that survivors of abuse have suffered and that we are committed to providing for them both justice and healing.

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SCOTLAND
ITV

The Catholic Church in Scotland will review recent and historic cases of abuse in the church in a “spirit of openness and transparency.”

The church will give details of the number of incidents reported between 2006 to 2012, their nature and the results of investigations into them, it announced to members.

A further audit of all cases of historic abuse allegations between 1947 and 2005 is then expected to be launched, along with a full review of its safeguarding procedures.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Michael Glackin

A former adviser to the Catholic Church in Scotland has accused it of creating a “smokescreen” to divert attention from the latest allegations of sex abuse.

The comments were made as the Church announced a three-point plan in response to criticism of how it has dealt with child abuse and sex scandals within its ranks.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A former moderator of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly has been asked by the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland to look at its safeguarding procedures.

The external review to be carried out by Andrew McLellan follows a series of scandals in the church.

As well as being a Church of Scotland minister, Mr McLellan is a former chief inspector of prisons for Scotland.

The most recent allegations concerned the Fort Augustus Abbey School.

The former leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, stepped down earlier this year after admitting sexual misconduct.

Police have been investigating the allegations of serious physical and sexual abuse at Fort Augustus school and its associated prep school, Carlekemp.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The finances of the Grafton diocese of the Anglican Church (known elsewhere as the Episcopalian Church or the Church of England) came under the spotlight last week at the third “case study” hearings of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, concerning Allan Kitchingman and the North Coast Children’s Home.

The diocese’s motto refers to “caring in the spirit of Christ”, but evidence suggests it was more in the spirit of Mammon, especially when it came to financial assistance for victims of its staff and clergy, who operated its North Coast Children’s Homes.

Management courses always warn of the risk of over-expansion. Apparently, the Grafton diocese had not learnt this lesson. It went into debt of $12 million, through an unsecured loan from investors, to expand its Clarence Valley Anglican School, but found there were not enough enrollments to make it a financially viable venture.

Diocesan Registrar, Anthony Newby, told the Royal Commission that, when he became registrar at Grafton in October 2010, the school debt was not being serviced. An oversight committee was set up to open lines of credit involving other dioceses – “not an easy task as only two, Perth and Adelaide, eventually came on board.” This strategy was needed because the Clarence Valley Anglican School loan was unsecured from the Grafton Diocese Investment Fund, which operated by inviting people to invest on the expectation of a return. The debt-reduction strategy would also mean selling at least $2 million of the diocese’s estimated $200 million asset base.

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CANADA
Catholic Register

Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
Sunday, 24 November 2013

OTTAWA – Nova Scotia’s Antigonish diocese plans a series of public encounters to reach out to sexual abuse victims and those hurt by a former bishop’s child porn conviction.

“As a diocese, we want to express solidarity with those who are hurting and make an effort to accompany all who are hurt or who are disconnected with the Church,” said a Nov. 29 news release.

“To those who have found it necessary to absent themselves from our faith communities, we will continue to try to regain your trust and remind you of how much we miss your presence.”

The meetings follow the multi-million dollar class-action sexual-abuse lawsuit settlement announced by then-Bishop Raymond Lahey in August 2009. About a month later Lahey was found with child pornography on his computer at Ottawa’s airport. He was charged and subsequently pleaded guilty to importation of child pornography.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com

The Reverend Ronald G. Falco, pastor of St. George Parish in Worcester, has been named the new pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Northboro.

He replaces the Reverend Stephen M. Gemme, who was removed from his pastoral duties in October for allegedly embezzling more than $230,000 from the Route 20 parish to fuel a gambling habit.

The chancery did not name a replacement for Rev. Falco at St. George’s, but the Reverend Richard F. Reidy, the diocesan vicar general and moderator of the curia, will serve as administrator until a successor is named next summer.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

A former Catholic altar boy (let’s call him “Cedric” – not his real name) has told Broken Rites about his experiences at the hands of Father Francis Xavier Brown (a Catholic priest in the Dominican religious order) in Adelaide around 1960. Cedric says he still feels hurt (half a century later) by his experience as an altar boy.

In the late 1950s, Cedric (born in 1950) became a pupil in the junior grades at Blackfriars Priory School (an all-boys school conducted by the Dominican priests and brothers) in Prospect, Adelaide. Eventually, Cedric was selected by the Dominicans to begin training as an altar boy for Saint Lawrence’s parish church in Prospect, North Adelaide. This parish was conducted by the Dominicans and these priests were involved in both the school and the parish.

Cedric says that while he was an altar boy he came under the supervision of Fr Francis Xavier Brown O.P. The letters “O.P.”, after his name, referred to the “Order of Preachers” – that is, the official name of the Dominican religious order. For a time, Father Brown was also simultaneously Cedric’s class teacher. Therefore, Cedric was under the control of Father Brown at the church altar and also in the classroom.

And Father was responsible for hearing boys’ Confessions. That is, Cedric was forced to tell all his “sins” to Father Brown in the confessional. The secrecy of Confession gave Father Brown extraordinary power over Cedric.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Sylvia

It’s taken a while for me to square this away, but finally, here is a report on the testimony from the sex abuse trial of Oblate priest, previously convicted molester Father Eric Dejaeger.

One male victim took the stand yesterday (Friday, 22 November 2013), He testified that he had been sexually abused when he was boy by Father Eric Dejaeger. The victim testified in Inuktitut – there is a translator in the courtroom and the testimony was translated into English.

The following is a small overview the man’s testimony of what happened to him when he was a boy. (A warning to all that some of this is very graphic) ;

(1) The victim was fondled on a number of occasion by Dejager. The fondling transpired in, amongst other places, the kitchen and also during confession (Confessions were heard every Saturday at 6 pm);

(2) In the presence of the dog, Dejaeger would masturbate the boy to ejaculation. – then Dejager would let the dog lick the sperm from the floor, and then get the dog to lick the boy’s penis;

(3) On at least five occasions he was forced to watch Father Dejager bugger the dog;

(4) On one occasion while in the furnace room he was forced to sexually touch the dog while Dejager watched. I’m a little confused on this, but I think that Dejager was also fondling the boy simultaneous to the activity with the dog. No matter, the testimony was definitively that the boy was instructed to do what he did to the dog while Dejager watched.;

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OMAHA (NE)
World-Herald

By Michael O’Connor / World-Herald staff writer

Prosecutors said Friday it was unlikely they would charge two local priests found guilty by the Archdiocese of Omaha of sexually abusing minors because the alleged abuse happened too long ago.

The archdiocese announced Friday morning that it has dismissed the Rev. Alfred J. Salanitro, 54, and sentenced the Rev. Franklin A. Dvorak, 69, to a life of prayer and penance. Archbishop George Lucas determined the verdicts after the archdiocese completed investigations into the two priests.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Friday that his office looked into the Salanitro cases with help from the Omaha Police Department and determined that the statute of limitations had run out on the cases.

In December 2011, a Carter Lake man reported he was sexually abused by Salanitro from 1991 to 1994, beginning when he was 11 years old. Salanitro was associate pastor of Holy Cross Parish at the time.

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WISCONSIN
WTMJ

[with video]

By Mary Franzen & Todd Hicks
CREATED NOV. 23, 2013

KENOSHA – Father Ireneusz Chodowski has been cleared of any criminal activity after posting some concerning photos to Facebook.

Father Chodowski had been removed from his post at Saint Peter’s Catholic Church after police opened an investigation on him last week.

Some parishioners concerned with Father Chodowski’s actions believe that the community leaders must be held to a high standard.

“If you’re working with children or working in a religious order, anything is fair game once it’s posted online,” said Frank Trecroci.

Trecroci founded the Renaissance School that leases space from the church and, as someone who works with the public, believes people should consider carefully what they post online.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Sunday 24 November 2013

THE investigation into the Scots parish priest who wrote a memoir claiming there was a culture of “homosexual bullying” in the Catholic Church was instigated by Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Devine before he stepped down from his role, it can be revealed.

Last week, the Sunday Herald told how parishioners at St John Ogilvie’s Church in High Blantyre were furious when it was announced just before evening mass that Father Matthew Despard was suspended and “a penal judicial process” had been launched against him.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ALAN HOWE HERALD SUN NOVEMBER 25, 2013

THE Catholic Church has long had problems with sex and marriage. Its popes still preach that sex outside marriage is a sin, despite so many unmarried priests regularly having sex – much of it criminal.

For centuries priests married freely, but the church came to view women with suspicion – clearly it still does – and it slowly changed its mind.

Today priests must not marry. But St Peter had a missus at the dawn of Christianity and it seems he coped, despite the distractions.

We know he was married because the Bible records Jesus curing Saint Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. It’s not recorded if the first Pope thought that a good thing or not.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

PARISHIONERS are calling for Father Matthew Despard – who self-published a book accusing the Catholic Church of covering up sexual bullying – to be reinstated.

MORE than 1000 angry church-goers have signed a petition demanding a suspended priest be reinstated.

Helen Ann Hawkins, 40, set up the campaign after Father Matthew Despard was told he was being stripped of his duties after failing to meet with Bishop Joseph Toal.

The decision came eight months after he self-published his book Priesthood in Crisis, which accused the Catholic Church of covering up sexual bullying.

But his supporters have given him strong backing, signing an online petition as well as a separate paper petition in their droves.

Now Helen plans to take the campaign to Bishop Toal, who announced the decision to suspend him eight days ago, then on to the Vatican.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Williamson Daily News

by Rachel Baldwin rbaldwin@civitasmedia.com

LENORE – According to information gathered from a criminal complaint filed in Mingo County Magistrate Court, a former youth leader at a church in Lenore is now facing sexual abuse charges.

West Virginia State Police Senior Trooper C.A. Allen says the suspect, 52-year-old Gary Adkins, the 7 year-old victim’s uncle, is accused of inappropriately touching the female child and faces three separate charges that includes two counts of third-degree sexual assault (felony), and one count of sexual abuse (misdemeanor) by a parent, guardian, custodian or person in a position of trust of a child. Adkins was charged Tuesday.

Adkins had been a minister at Parsley Bottom Freewill Baptist Church until a few months ago and had earlier worked as a youth group leader there, and many members of the congregation say the defendant has an excellent reputation and find the allegations hard to believe.

“That’s just not in his character,” Jacqueline Parsley, who used to go to church with Adkins said, during an interview with the media.

“If the family will just be careful and be patient, the truth will come out, guilty or not,” Parsley said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
November 23, 2013

A Pennsylvania pastor has been accused of indecent sexual contact with an 11-year-old girl, who authorities believed is the daughter of congregants of the Fallen Timbers Community Church.

Ray Scott Teets, 66, has been charged by state police with “indecent assault, unlawful restraint, interference with custody of children, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with a minor, concealing the whereabouts of a child, child luring, stalking and criminal trespass.”

Currently his bail is set at $250,000, according to Trib Live.

This is not the first instance of an inappropriate relationship between Teets and a child. The pastor also informed a judge about a conviction for child sexual abuse from 1986.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: November 23, 2013

Twin Cities archdiocese arrives late to the issue, but scrutiny here mirrors national cases.

Minnesota should expect to see a spike in clergy sex abuse lawsuits as questions about the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ handling of those cases thrusts church leaders here into the national spotlight.

While it’s too early to know how many new cases may yet come, legal analysts and victim advocates say the developments in Minnesota church to significant financial risk.

“This is just the beginning for Minnesota,” said Terry McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that documents clergy misconduct. “The St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese is in a meltdown that perhaps only a dozen dioceses have experienced during the ongoing sexual abuse crisis.”

Nationally, the Catholic Church has spent an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion settling abuse lawsuits, according to court documents and media reports, and nine Catholic dioceses, including Milwaukee’s, have filed for bankruptcy protection since 2004.

In Minnesota, recent events have conspired to bring extraordinary attention to the issue. State law changed earlier this year to permit lawsuits from decades-old abuse cases, prompting more than 20 new lawsuits. A whistleblower in the archdiocese went public with incriminating church documents that seemed to indicate that church officials may have withheld information about new abuse cases. …

Tom Doyle, a Virginia-based canon lawyer who has testified on behalf of alleged victims in hundreds of clergy abuse cases in civil courts, said churches typically respond to allegations in a similar manner: They appoint review boards, hire outside investigators, adopt new policies and, in some cases, remove or demote key players within the church hierarchy.

But two things make Minnesota different, Doyle said. First, the call for Nienstedt’s resignation includes some parish priests. Second, a whistleblower from inside the chancery — former archdiocesan canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger — has provided inside information about the church’s handling of recent abuse allegations and its treatment of priests who were known to have abused children.

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Catherine Deveney
The Observer, Saturday 23 November 2013

confidential file of letters from Scottish bishops detailing more than 20 secret abuse cases has been handed to police by a former safeguarding adviser to the Catholic church.

The intervention by Alan Draper, a former adviser to the Motherwell diocese, comes as the church attempts to draw a line under unfolding sex-abuse scandals by announcing a series of measures to be read at all masses this weekend on behalf of the Scottish bishops. However, describing the initiatives as a “charade”, Draper says it is time for criminal investigations and an independent Scottish government inquiry into sexual abuse in the church.

The letters, dating back to 1995, include every Scottish diocese. One bishop, who describes abuse against “two severely mentally-handicapped young female adults”, asks Draper to destroy his letter after reading it. Another refers to an abused child as a “young female parishioner”. while a 15-year-old boy is described as “sexually mature”.

A Catholic media spokesman, Peter Kearney, said the church would co-operate fully with the police, but added: “If someone has been in possession of material which they felt showed criminal behaviour, they would be expected to explain why they had taken 18 years to hand it to the authorities.”

“The letters were given to me in confidence, and for a long time I respected that,” explains Draper. “But the church has failed to reach out to victims and I have felt increasingly frustrated with their inability to manage the situation. It’s a matter of public interest that the file be revealed.”

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CONNECTICUT
Minuteman News Center

By Meg Learson Grosso
mgrosso@fairfieldminuteman.com
Twitter: @mlearsongrosso

Paul Kendrick said that his four years at Fairfield University taught him that the practice of his faith must include the promotion of justice. “That’s what the Jesuits taught me. Why am I such a lone voice in the wilderness echoing back to the Jesuits the social justice values they taught me?” he asked when he spoke to us by phone last week.

Kendrick noted that attorney Mitchell Garabedian, of Boston, who won a $12 million settlement for 24 Haitian boys, after they were sexually abused by Fairfield University alumnus Doug Perlitz, has said he is now bringing suit for at least 27 more former students. Indeed, Garabedian told us there might be even 30 more than that.

Kendrick, who brought the Haitian boys together with Garabedian in the first place, said that before last June’s $12 million settlement, he “begged” Garabedian, and the defendants, Father von Arx, President of Fairfield University, the Society of Jesuits of New England, the Oder of Malta, and others, “to provide resources in Haiti to help the victims deal with the trauma of their abuse.”

Instead, said Kendrick a lump sum of $12 million was paid out with no provision for mental health services.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

• Boston MA (we have cached the original main list posted on 8/25/11; the entire Publication With Respect to Archdiocesan Clergy Accused of Sexual Abuse of a Child as it existed on 1/9/13; and the 1/9/13 posting in its several parts: Cardinal O’Malley’s introductory letter, the main list of accused priests, a glossary, the list of priests whose allegations are considered by the archdiocese to be unsubstantiated, O’Malley’s letter to priests, and his letter to survivors)

• Bridgeport CT (we have cached a copy of this press release)

• Capuchins – Province of St. Joseph (we cached a copy of this list and of the relevant pages of the report; the list was included in Michael Burnett, Fr. Thomas Doyle, and Dr. James Freiburger, Report of the Audit and Review of the Files of the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph [June 18, 2013]; a revised version of the report was created on 6/28/13, when a revised version of the executive summary was also created)

• Chicago (updated at the same URL with no “revised on” date and no indication of who has been added or what has been changed; see our cached copies of earlier versions; numbers in brackets indicate additions, subtractions, and current totals of priests with substantiated allegations: 3/20/06 [+15=55; see Falsani article for prior total]; 9/15/08 [+7=62]; 1/4/10 [+3–1=64]; 1/14/10 [+1=65]; 10/4/10 [same total as 1/14/10 but updated entries on Craig, Hagan, Hoder, Holihan, Huppenbauer, Kissane, Mayer, McCaffrey, and Weston]; 7/5/11 [same total as 10/4/10 but updated entries on Bowman, Flosi, Hoder, and Kissane]).

• Cincinnati (we have cached a copy of this status report)

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Perhaps one of the greatest hypocrites of all time appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this week. He is Philip Gerber, the “professional standards” official for Phillip Aspinall’s Anglican Church (known elsewhere as the Episcopalian Church or the Church of England) for many years. He was a sort of moral guardian of church officials and employees.

Gerber was in the job from 2000 to 2009. He would know more than most people just what was required of him by the law concerning reporting of child sexual abuse, since he is a lawyer as well as an Anglican priest.

He told the Royal Commission hearing into the North Coast Children’s Home that he had made “some mistakes” handling abusive priests. Mr Gerber admitted his “failings” and said he was not trying to defend himself. “I am very unhappy with myself, I didn’t take the sort of steps that you are talking about… and am quite embarrassed and apologize that it might have potentially put other people at risk, children and other vulnerable people at risk.”

In particular, Gerber did not report Rev. Brown to police for at least a year after receiving a detailed complaint from Brown’s victim at the Children’s Home, “Tommy” Campion (see previous posting) in 2005. Mr. Gerber agreed he had a duty to go to police with abuse allegations but couldn’t say why he didn’t .Gerber’s excuse was that Brown was a “not uncommon name”, and the victim had not provided a first name, so he did not bother to look at the diocese records about him. Brown continued to hold a license to practice until June of this year.

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CALIFORNIA
48 Hills

By Tim Redmond

The Church of St. Francis in North Beach is a San Francisco landmark. To some Catholics, followers of the humble and gentle saint from Assisi, it’s the landmark, the church named after the namesake of this city. It’s been designated by Catholic Church officials as the national Shrine of St. Francis, and it’s home to a spectacular replica of the Italian chapel called the Porziuncola, where the Franciscan order was born.

It’s also the center of a battle over the use of the shrine, control of the Porziuncola – and, in larger sense, control of the property and operations of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, a powerful institution run by conservative clerics in a liberal city.

At the center of the battle are Monsignor James Tarantino, who as vicar of the archdiocese controls all of the Church’s extensive real-estate holdings, and Bill McLaughlin, chair of the Shrine Board of Trustees. The two, along with Rev. Harold Snider, who is in charge of the Shrine of St. Francis, have been involved in a struggle with former Sup. Angela Alioto and the Knights of St. Francis, on organization she created, over the future of the Shrine and the Porziuncola, which would not exist if Alioto hadn’t raised the millions of dollars it took to build it.

And while all of this has been going on, a former church employee who worked at the Shrine has filed a complaint with the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging that she was fired because she refused to continue having sex with McLaughlin.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by ALISTAIR MUNRO

THE Catholic Church sought to draw a line under the scandal surrounding the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien when it was reported that he will face no further disciplinary action from the Vatican.

O’Brien, who was forced to stand down after three priests and a former priest accused him of improper sexual conduct, has spent the past few months in exile for “the purpose of spiritual renewal, prayer and penitence”. He is currently understood to be living at a monastery in England.

On Saturday the new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, indicated the Vatican does not plan to pursue further action against his predecessor, who left his post after the revelations were published in February.

Cushley told a newspaper his “impression” was Rome had finished with the matter.

“They will monitor the situation. They will look into it again after a certain period to see that things are going in the way they ought to be going. They may consider other evidence if it comes to light, but it would be up to them as to what they should do,” he said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

ST. LOUIS – A part-time instructor at a local Catholic middle school has been charged with molesting a 13-year-old student.

The victim told authorities that Seri Grant had inappropriate contact with her during the 2012-2013 school year. In one instance, Grant allegedly touched the girl’s breasts over her clothing. On a separate occasion, Grant is said to have pulled the victim’s pants and underwear down and rubbed her genitals with his penis.

These incidents occurred after regular school hours in the campus library.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Valerie Schremp Hahn vhahn@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82460

ST. LOUIS • A part-time instructor for a Catholic middle school for girls from low-income backgrounds has been charged with raping and molesting one of the students.

Seri O. Grant, 54, of the 6900 block of Willow Wood Drive in Northwoods, was charged Friday in St. Louis Circuit Court with first-degree statutory rape and first-degree child molestation. According to court documents, the victim, a 13-year-old girl, was a student at Marian Middle School at 4130 Wyoming Street during the 2012-13 school year. During that time, Grant worked part-time as an instructor.

The victim told authorities that Grant touched her breasts over her clothing and raped her on a separate occasion. The incidents happened after regular school hours in the school library, court documents said, sometime between August 2012 and January 2013.

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

Of the 21 persons whose files were released on November 21, 2013, Bro. Joseph F. Reagan is the only one not previously known to be accused. He is not on the Los Angeles archdiocesan lists, and he was not in BishopAccountability.org’s Database of Accused. Reagan joined the Brothers of the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1961. He trained in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Texas in 1961-1965, and then worked as a counselor at a boys’ home called Rancho San Antonio in Chatsworth CA (see summary). He left the order in 1966, planning to “achieve my salvation … in the field of baseball.”

The order was contacted several times in June 2002 by a man alleging abuse by Reagan at Rancho San Antonio. The “disturbed” caller was told that Reagan “left the HC Brothers, married, became a cop in Oxnard, and then Regan [sic], his wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident.” A detective with the LAPD also called the order several times in early 2003.

The file contains nothing indicating that the order knew about the abuse before the survivor called, but there are at least four pages missing from the file as released (Bates numbers BOHC/REAGAN 078-081). Some documents raise concerns. One evaluation states that Reagan “seems to have a great deal of natural ability to work with boys” and that he has “shown signs of immaturity in judgment.” Another observes that he “has had a little trouble adjusting to the less manly Brothers but has more or less outgrown it. It should not bother him anymore. Friendly, takes active part in rec. May be a little prone to scandal at first due to naivete.” The order’s concern for such issues can also be seen in a questionnaire that asks reviewers whether applicants to the order are “manly and virile” or “soft or feminine.” Reagan’s Salesian reviewer replies, “I did not notice.”

Here is the entire Reagan file, re-processed to make it searchable and easier to download than the files as released.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Nov. 22, 2013

A Racine Catholic priest removed for posting questionable images on his Facebook page will not face criminal charges, the Kenosha Police Department said Friday.

It was not immediately clear whether Father Ireneusz Chodakowski will return as pastor at St. Peter’s Catholic Parish. Archdiocese of Milwaukee spokesman Jerry Topczewski said that will be up to his religious order, the Massachusetts-based Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. An attorney for the order declined to comment Friday other than to say it is undertaking its own investigation of the matter.

Chodakowski, who had been at St. Peter’s since 2010, was removed last week after someone complained that images on his Facebook account could be potentially pornographic.

Kenosha police issued a statement late Friday saying they conferred with the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation and the Kenosha County district attorney’s office as part of the probe and determined that no crime had occurred. Kenosha police said they concurred with the archdiocese’s assessment of the situation as poor judgment on the part of the priest.

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MISSOURI
Fox 2

[with video]

(KTVI)– A Catholic priest accused in 2012 of molesting an underage girl from Lincoln County no longer faces criminal charges. Pike County Circuit Judge Chris Kunza Mennemeyer threw out the child endangerment charge against Father Xiu Hiu ‘Joseph’ Jiang on Monday. That ruling became public Friday.

A statement issued by the court indicates new information shows the defendant (Jiang) was never alone with the alleged victim and therefore a charge of ‘child endangerment’ was improper. An associated tampering with a witness charge had to be automatically dismissed once the first charge was dropped.

Lincoln County Prosecutor Leah Askey told FOX2 News the statute of limitations has expired on any misdemeanor charges that might have been considered. However, she said if new evidence of a felony is obtained, new charges could be filed.

Lucy Hannegan, organizer of the Friends of Father Jiang website, said she and other supporters ‘never had any doubts in his innocence so it is no surprise to us.’

David Clohessy, executive director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the teenager and her family are ‘very, very upset.’ ‘The victim and the family reported promptly and there is a lot of evidence, yet still the judge tossed out the charges so it is very disconcerting,’ he added.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Saturday 23 November 2013

The new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has indicated he believes the Vatican will take no further action against his disgraced predecessor, Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

Archbishop Leo Cushley told a newspaper his “impression” was that Rome had finished with the matter.

Cardinal O’Brien, who was Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, stepped down in February after three priests and a former priest made allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.

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SCOTLAND
STV

The new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has indicated he believes the Vatican will take no further action against his disgraced predecessor, Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

Archbishop Leo Cushley told a newspaper his “impression” was that Rome had finished with the matter.

Cardinal O’Brien, who was Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, stepped down in February after three priests and a former priest made allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.

He issued an apology, saying “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me”.

After his resignation from the Archdiocese, he stated that he would play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland. He later left the country for a period of “spiritual renewal”, with reports suggesting the Vatican had ordered him to leave.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Michael Kelly
November 7, 2013

A senior cardinal has broken his silence over the Vatican’s investigation of controversial Irish priest Fr Tony Flannery.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Irish Catholic this week Cardinal William Levada said that Fr Flannery was not investigated for his views on married priests as has been suggested, but because he ‘undermined’ essentials teachings of the Church.

Cardinal Levada served for over seven years as Pope Benedict’s chief doctrinal adviser. In his role as prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (COF) he was responsible for leading an investigation which has seen Fr Flannery suspended from the exercise of his priesthood.

Cardinal Levada told The Irish Catholic Fr Flannery “takes to the news a lot”. However, the cardinal, who, while retired as prefect, is still a member of the CDF, said “I have never seen in any reports what the fundamental problem was that led to our intervention.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Friday it is delaying the release of the names of some priests who have sexually abused children until at least next month.

Archbishop John Nienstedt had said he would disclose the names, locations and status of the men in November with “permission of the relevant court.”

The archdiocese said a protective order has been in place in Ramsey County District Court since 2009 related to the disclosure.

On Friday, the archdiocese said it just learned that a meeting with a Ramsey County judge has now been scheduled for Dec. 2. The archdiocese said the need for court approval will delay its schedule for disclosure. But the archdiocese said it’s prepared to release information once the judge approves the plan.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Huffington Post

Posted: 11/23/2013

David Lohr
david.lohr@huffingtonpost.com

Ray Scott Teets, a Pennsylvania pastor arrested Thursday for indecent contact with a minor, had a prior conviction in a child sexual abuse case, which his seminary school was allegedly aware of and did nothing about, according to Maryland attorney Stephen A. Markey III.

Markey told The Huffington Post he personally notified the Kentucky Baptist seminary school Teets attended in the 1990s that Teets had pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse in 1988.

In 1992, a Baltimore judge and jury ordered Teets to pay a 15-year-old female victim $500,000 in punitive damages. Markey said he represented the victim in the civil suit against Teets.

“After the verdict I learned he was in a Baptist school studying to be a minister,” Markey said. “I filed a garnishment of any pre-paid tuition that he may have had. I attached to [the request] a copy of the complaint and the verdict that showed he had been convicted of the rape. I did that solely to let them know that they are teaching a rapist –- that they are going to make a rapist a minister. I never heard back from them.”

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

Another batch of religious order and extern files has been released in Los Angeles, as agreed in the survivors’ landmark 2007 settlement with the Los Angeles archdiocese. The released files are in non-searchable PDFs. Today BishopAccountability.org will be providing a first look at selected documents.

We begin with John Peter Lenihan, whose 269-page file from the Orange diocese is among those that have been released. Lenihan requested laicization at the insistence of Bishop Tod Brown on March 28, 2002, and his laicization was granted two months later, on May 28, 2002, an unheard-of level of efficiency in a Vatican laicization bureaucracy that usually takes years to decide a case. Why the hurry?

The new documents reveal that in 2001-2002, after Lenihan had resigned over an interview with Steve Lopez at the LA Times, revealing sexual misconduct and disagreements with the church regarding celibacy, he retracted his resignation, admitted the truth of the interview to his bishop, lied about it to parishioners, and was removed. The diocese then learned that he was violating a therapeutic relationship with a woman, abusing her sexually, and exposing her handicapped child to explicit phone sex voicemails left on the woman’s home answering machine. What’s more, people knew about this latest sexual misconduct. The woman’s lawsuit and its shocking exhibits provide the real context for Lenihan’s rapid laicization.

Much earlier in his career, when the Diocese of Orange had received an allegation on March 25, 1988, from the mother of a 16-year-old girl whom Lenihan had abused, the priest was left in ministry, and less than a month later, his positions as diocesan consultor and member of the council of priests were confirmed. By 2002, things had changed.

Here is the entire Lenihan file, re-processed to make it searchable and easier to download than the files as released.

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